Project:

Memory and Forgetting

From March 2002 to May 2003
Project Leader(s): Tom Shakespeare

Funded by Arts Council of England and NESTA, a collaboration of four artists (Daniel Sturgis, Louise K.Wilson, Shona Illingworth, Ashley McCormick) and four scientists from the Universities of Newcastle and Durham (Anya Hurlbert, Madeleine Eacott, Martin Conway and Julian Hughes).

Memory and Forgetting was a Sci-Art project, in association with Northern Print Studio, which developed partnerships between visual artists and psychologist and neuroscientists to explore different dimensions of memory and forgetting.

The themes explored included:Sci-art Artwork

  • colour memory;
  • childhood amnesia;
  • memory and the self; and
  • dementia and identity.

Initiated after a grant under the Sci-Art Consortium scheme, the research stage ended with a Symposium in September 2002.

Following further funding, the production stage culminated in an exhibition of work in Newcastle's Hatton Gallery from March to May 2003.

The exhibition was accompanied by

  • two artist talks;
  • workshops in the gallery for schools;
  • workshops in schools and with the Alzheimer's Disease Society;
  • films at the Tyneside Cinema; and
  • a collaboration sci-art event called 'Music in Mind' in which Northern Sinfonia's Cobweb Orchestra played a piece of music from memory.

The project received a range of media coverage, including interviews on Radio 4's Midweek and Woman's Hour programmes.

The show then toured to Huddersfield and other locations. An illustrated brochure of the exhibition was produced and a copy can be obtained from PEALS.